Conveyer apparatus



(No Model-.) 2Sheets-Sheet 1.

H. SMITH.

GONVBYER APPARATUS.

Patented Apr. 27, 1886.

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(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

H. SMITH.

- GONVBYER APPARATUS.

No. 340,633. Patented Apr. 27, 1886.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HERVEY SMITH, OF ERIE, PENNSYLVANIA.

CONVEYER APPARATUS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 340,633, dated April2'], 1886. Application filed December 22, 1885. Serial No. 186,433. (Nomodclll T0 aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, HERVEY SMITH, a citi zen of the United States,residing at Erie, in the county of Erie and State of Pennsylvania, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Oonveyer Apparatus; andI do hereby declare the following to beafull, clear, and exactdescription of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in theart to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to conveyer systems such as are used in storesfor conveying packages, cash, &c., and for other like purposes, and itparticularly relates to the appliances by which cars are automaticallydiverted from the main to the switch tracks at their destined stations,and at no others.

The invention consists in ccrtain'new and useful devices for effectingthe automatic trans fer of the car from the main to the switch track atits destined station only. Two methods for automatically transferringthe cars at their destined stations have been practiced heretofore. Oneconsists in providing at each switch a post or other device to be hit bya projection from the car, and the appliances at the stations are gradedserially in height or lateral position, or both, and the appliances onthe cars are varied in position so that they will come in contact withthe switching appliances at only one station. The other method consistsin providing each car with a releasing apparatus,which will retain theswitching appliance on the car from action until ithas been moved acertain number of times, and placing at each station a fixture, whichwill come'in cont-act with and move the releasing apparatus on the caras it passes each station, and when the fixed number of stations havebeen passed the releasing device will bring the switching appliance onthe car into action.

My device more nearly resembles thelatter method than the former, butdiffers from it, in that I employ no releasing apparatus.

My device, generally speaking, consists ofa wheel on the car, which ismoved a certain fixed distance at each station it passes, either by aratchet or by arms extending from it in the manner of a star-gear, andan appliance for operating upon the switching devices at the destinedstation, which is brought into action by said wheel when it has moved acertain fixed distance.

A second feature of my invention consists in providing at the front partof the car means for opening the switch, and at the rear part of the carmeans for closing the switch, and a switch with means whereby whenopened it willbe retained open until the retaining device has beendisengaged, when it will close automatically.

My invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, as follows:Figure 1 is a perspective view representing a main track, A,twoswitches, A A, a car, B, and my devices for effecting the automatictransfer of the car at its destined switch. Fig.2 is a perspective ofthe same parts, taken from the opposite side from that seen in Fig. 1,and shows the cars just passing onto the destined switch. Fig. 3 is anenlarged side elevation of the wheel B seen on the cars in Figs. 1 and2. Fig. 4 is a like view showing a wheel of modified construction. Fig.5 is a front elevation of the wheel B and its associated parts. Fig. 6shows still another modification of the wheel B. Fig. 7 also shows stillanother modification. Fig. 8 is an end view of the parts seen in Fig. 7.Fig. '9 shows a wheel similar to that seen in Fig. 7, but with slightmodifications. Fig. 10 is an end view of the parts seen in Fig. 9.

The track shown in the drawings is a bartrack with switch-tongues a athereon at the switch-point; but it must be understood that my inventionis not limited to use on any particular form of track or with anyparticular type of switch. The switch-tongues are shown as connected bya sliding bar, a, which connects with a lever, a, at the side of thetrack, which lever is provided with a cam-face at its moving end, so itcan be moved by a deflector on the car, and it is reacted by a spring.By the side of this lever is a spring'catch, ed, on a standard, a, andon the lever is a pin, a", which will be engaged by the catch as thelever is swung back from the track, as seen at the right of Fig. 2. Onthe standard a there is pivoted an L-shaped lever, a, which, if its longend is raised, will push back the catch a and cause it to release thepin a, when the spring will react the lever 0?.

The means by which the lever a is moved to open the switch are 011 thefront end of the ear, and may be as shown or of any desiredconstruction. At the rear of the car there is an arm, 13*, which willpass under and lift the lever to, and, as explained above, release thecatch (6". It will therefore be seen that with these appliances a carthat is to go onto a switch will move the lever a, and open the switchas it approaches it, and the switch will be retained open until the rearend of the car has passed over it, when the arm B will release theretaining device and the switch will be at once closed by the reactingspring.

The means by which I eli'ect the automatic switching of the several carsat their destined switches, and at no others, are as follows: At

7 the front end ofeach car is mounted a wheel, B.

On this wheel, or operated by it, are the means by which the lever a orany other switchmov'ing appliance at the station is moved. This wheel Bis either provided with radial arms I), by which it can be rotated likea stargear, or else it has ratchet-teeth and is moved by a pawl andlever, B b", (as in Figs. 6, 7, 8, 9, and 1.0,) as may be desired. Onone of its sides it is provided with notches b,into which a catch-lever,13*, engages. There are just as many of these notches as there areradial arms or ratchet teelh, and their object is to prevent the wheelbeing at any one movement more than just the intended dist-ance, and Imake the notches with beveled mouths and square bottoms,so that thecatch-lever B will be sure to hold the wheel at precisely the pointintended.

At the proper point immediately in advance of the switches, thereissupported on an arch, O, a cam, l, in position to move the lever B asthe car passes. A stud, B stands beside the lever l", and the cam (Jpasses between them. This insures a given movement to the lever B, as noswaying of the car can change the space between B and B, and the passageof the cam C between them must move the lever B the required distance.

Opposite the wide part of the ram 0 on the arch 0 is a fixtu re, 0,which depends from the arch, so as to be hit by the uppermost arm I) ofthe wheel B, or by the ratchet-lever B, where that is used, as the carpasses. This moves the wheel B one notch. for the catchlever B is thendisengaged from the notches b". Ofcourse,the length ofthe arms borofthelever B if it is used, and the length of the fixture a will be properlyadjusted, so as to obtain the required movementofthe wheel.

\Vhere there are a good many arms on the wheel-as, for example,twelve-as seen in Figs. 3 and 4, I slant the ends of the arms on theside toward which the wheel moves, as seen in those figures, so thatthere will be no danger of an arm striking the fixture 0 until it isstanding at the top of the wheel.

The appliance for moving the switch-tongues is modified in the drawings.In Figs. 3, 4, 5,

and 6 it consists in setting certain of the arms, which are marked b,out to one side of the wheel, so that when they are standing at thebottom of the wheel they will extend far enough to one side to come incontact with the cam-face of the lever c and serve as a deflector tomove that lever. In Figs. 7 and 8 there is a pivoted arm, B, below thewheel, which is depressed by cams b on the wheel, and when depressed itwill come in contact with the lever a". In Figs. 9 and 10 there is aslide, B, below the wheel, which is moved out by cams b on the wheel.The arrangement of these arms I) or cams I) or b on the wheel is an essential feature of my invention. Each of the wheels shown are dividedinto twelve spaces, but they may be divided into more or less, ifdesired. In Fig. 4 but one switch-moving arm, I), is shown, but all thearms are numbered. This arm is shown at the top of the wheel, and beforeit can act to open a switch it must be at the lower side; hence, whenthus set on a car, that car will be switched at the sixth station on theline; but it it was set so that arm No. 4 was at the lowest point, thenthe car would go off on switch No. l. It will therefore be seen thatsuch a wheel can be set so as to switch a car at any one of twelvedifferent stations, and that it must be set prcperly before the car issent off from the central station; but if the returirtrack wereprovi-ided with fixtures for revolving the wheel when running back fromthe way to the central station, then the wheels would be properly setwhen the car is returned. I V

It is desi rable,generally, that the wheels need no setting, and thatthis be accomplished without putting fixtures along the return-track.This I accomplish as follows:

In Fig. 2 each alternate arm is a switchmoving arm. Therefore, the carwith such a wheel will go off on the second switch every" time it is putonto the track; but if there were only two such arms set opposite eachother the car would be switched at the sixth switch every time, and ifbut three arms, and they placed at equal distances, as in Fig. 6, thenthe car would go off onto the switch No. 4 every time, and it there werefour such arms placed at equal distances, then the car would go off onswitch No. 3every time, and if there were but one such arm the car wouldonly run off at switch No. 12. Therefore, with wheels divided intotwelve parts, by properly placing the arms b or cams b or I), orwhatever appliance may be used, cars can be switched onto switches Nos.2, 3, 4, 6, and 12. Now, to reach switches 5 and 10, the car must beprovided with a wheel which is divided into either ten or fifteen ortwenty spaces, and the same rule followed in fixing the points where thearms are to be placed, as above stated. For switch No. 7 a wheel withfourteen spaces may be provided, and for switch No. 8 a wheel with eightor sixteen spaces, and for No. 9 a wheel with nine or eighteen spaces,and for No. 11 a wheel with eleven or twentytwo spaces. To reach switchNo. 1, a fixed deflector may be used. This illustrates the method for aIIO track having twelve stations or less, and from it it is easy to seehow lines with more than twelve stations can be provided for.

The wheels should not be divided into fewer than eight spaces, unlessthey are made proportionately smaller, and they should not be made toosmall to get good results. I find a wheel-should be about two inches indiameter to get'the best results, and the wheels of this size can bedivided into from eight to fourteen spaces easily and get good results,and as it is very rare that more than twelve stations be placed on asingle line no difficulty need be had. However, if the constructionshown in Figs. 7 8, 9, and 10 is used, the wheels may be divided into asmany spaces as desired, for the objection to very short divisions doesnot obtain in those constructions.

It will be seen that practically the several modifications shown arealike. In each there is a wheel which is moved progressively as the carpasses from station to station, and in each there are tappets on thiswheel which operate to move the switching devices at the stations,either directly or through another part, as the lever B or slide B Thewheels B, I. call tappet-whcels, forlack of a better term, for the armsI) and cams b and If are, in effect, tappets, which, in one case, actupon the lever a directly and in the other cases act upon anintermediate lever orslide.

What I claim as new is 1. Ina conveyer apparatus of the class hereinnamed, the combination, substantially as set forth, of a main trackhaving a series of switch or branch tracks, switchmoving devices placedat each switch or branch point, cars for traversing said tracks whichhave thereon movable tappets for operating upon said switch-movingdevices when they are brought into proper position, and means,substantially as described, for moving said tappets into position as thecar progresses along the track.

2. In a conveyer apparatus of the class herein named, the combination,substantially as set forth, of a main track having a series of switch orbranch tracks, switch-moving devices placed at each switch or branchpoint, cars for traversing said tracks which have thereon movabletappets for operating upon said switch-moving devices when they arebrought into proper position, said tappets being mounted on anequally-spaced wheel in certain relative position, as set forth, andmeans, substantially as set forth, for moving said wheel a fixeddistance at certain periods of the cars advancement along the track,whereby the said tappets will be brought int9 operative position atcertain predetermined points, as set forth.

3. In a conveyer apparatus of the class herein named, the combination,substantially as set forth, of a main track having a series of switch orbranch tracks, switclrmoving devices placed at each switch or branchpoint, cars for traversing said tracks which have thereon anequally-spaced wheel, means, substantially as set forth, for moving saidwheel one space as the car passes each station or switch, and tappetsfor operating the switchmoving mechanism mounted on said wheel at pointsbetween which there are as many spaces as the station to which the caris destined is removed serially from the startingpoint, for the purposesmentioned.

4. In a convever apparatus of the class herein named, the combination,substantially as set forth, of a main track having a series of switch orbranch tracks, switclrmoving devices placed at each switch or branchpoint, cars for traversing said tracks which have thereon anequallyspaced tappet-wheel, for the purposes set forth, means,substantially as set forth, for moving said tappet-wheel one space asthe car passes each station, and a locking device for preventing anyuntimely movement of said wheel, substantially as and for the purposesset forth.

5. In a conveyer apparatus, the combination, substantially as herein setforth, of a main track, a switch-track, a movable switchtongue, a leverfor moving said switch, a tappet on the forward end of the car formoving said lever, a catch for retaining said lever, and a second tappeton the rear of said car for disengaging said catch.

6. In a conveyer apparatus, the combination, substantially as herein setforth, and for the purposes mentioned, of the tappetwheel B on the car,a locking device for preventing untimely movement of said wheel, afixture near the track for moving said tappet-whee1 as the car passes,and a cam for releasing said locking device at the time the fixture actsup on the tappet-wheel.

7. In a conveyer apparatus, the combination, the purposes mentioned, ofthe tappetwheel B on the car, the lockinglever B, for preventing anuntimely movement of said wheel, the fixed post 13, and the cam O on thearch O, in position to pass between the lever B and post .B.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

HERVEY SMITH.

\Vitnesses:

ROBT. H. Pon'rnn, G. SWALLY.

substantially as herein set forth, and forv ICO IIC

